Other powertrain problem on the 2004 Honda Odyssey
6 crashes 1 fire 1 injury 8 of the 121 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Honda Odyssey report other powertrain problem at a median of 112,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 88,000 miles and a quarter after 143,000 miles, from 101 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 171,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 106,420 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64,580 miles | 88,000 miles | 112,000 miles | 143,100 miles | 171,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 6 a crash, 1 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 333; the 2004 has 121. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
When shifting up from a lower gear (from 1st to 2nd) most notably at low speeds, around 20 to 25 MPH, the engine feels like it is revving higher than normal before shifting into the next gear. When it does shift, it shifts hard and makes a clanking noise. It feels as though the transmission is sticking, preventing it from changing gears in a normal fashion. I have not noticed it occurring at any specific time, it seems to happen at random intervals when driving at lower speeds. I have taken the van in for inspection and the technician could not recreate this problem. Took van on july 08, contacted honda, the problem still has yet to be resolved. This is one of six problems I had to take the van in for. After having the van for two weeks, only two non-mechanical problems were partially resolved and one non-mechanical problem was resolved completely.*ak
2004 honda odyssey manufacturing defect.*mr the vehicle was on and the consumer had to children inside it. The consumer put the vehicle in park and exited the vehicle to retrieved something. When she returned and attempted to get into her car it began to roll backwards down the driveway. The vehicle crossed the road before it came to an abrupt stop on the curd. The dealer was contacted and explained that the gears may have somehow become stuck between park and reverse and then popped into reverse. The consumer contacted the manufacturer requesting a new vehicle and an investigation. *nm
2004 honda odyssey transmission problem. At 20,000 miles, the transmission has started to slip. Also, it rolls backwards when it is in drive in our driveway. Our driveway is not steep. It did not do that when we first got it. The dealer said that was normal. We almost slammed into a car that was parked in front of us on a hill. We were facing downward. I put the van in reverse, then I took my foot off the brake to make some room so I could get around the car parked in front of us. The van rolled forward and I had just enough time to avoid causing major damage. I had to find the owner of the car in front so he could move out of the way so I could get out of there. *jb
Also reported on the 2004 Honda Odyssey
Complete transmission failure
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 121 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2004 Honda Odyssey?
Across 101 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 112,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 88,000 miles and a quarter after 143,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2004 Honda Odyssey?
121 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed